1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording device, and in particular to an ink-jet recording device in which ink droplets jetted from the nozzle are alternately separated into large-diameter and small-diameter ink droplets and the small-diameter ink droplets are used to record images with high precision.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In an ink-jet recording device of charge modulating type, ink droplets jetted from the nozzle are charged on the basis of an information signal corresponding to an image to be recorded. The ink droplet thus charged is flown and deflected in a deflecting electric field and is stuck at a predetermined position onto the recording surface to record a dot. In such an ink-jet recording device, it becomes possible to record high precision images by separating ink droplets alternately in large-diameter droplets and small-diameter droplets and recording images by means of small-diameter droplets. Such an ink-jet recording device using small-diameter droplets is disclosed in the specification and drawing of U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,077 invented by Yamada et al.
In a typical ink-jet recording device of charge modulation type according to the prior art, a gutter is disposed in the straight flight path of uncharged ink droplets. The gutter traps and retrieves nonrecording ink droplets. Recording ink droplets are charged and deflected to keep away from the gutter and stick to the recording surface. If recording ink droplets continue one after another in such an ink-jet recording device of charge modulation type, however, the charge of the preceding recording ink droplet repels that of the succeeding recording ink droplet, resulting in flight distortion. Further, the electric field generated by the charge of the preceding recording ink droplet causes the charging distortion of the succeeding recording ink droplet, resulting in recording distortion. In particular, the distortion correction control for small-diameter ink droplets is difficult because of its large deflection sensitivity.